This One-Hour Documentary Sheds Light On The Urban-Legend Polybius Arcade Game

Rumour has it that in the early 80’s, an arcade game called Polybius was invented by the FBI for mind-control testing. It’s a big urban legend that’s related to games, but is it really real? Many has claim it does, some even claimed responsible for developing it, but the game itself never materialise.

And no, Jeff Minter’s trippy shooter of the same released early this year doesn’t count.

This documentary however, sheds light to the truth of the Polybius story. Stuart “Ahoy” Brown has made guides on using specific weapons in Call Of Duty games, but has now branched out to make fleshed-out documentaries. From retrospectives of games to retrospectives of famous real-life weapons (and its influences in games), he has done many well-researched pieces. His work on uncovering Polybius has to be his greatest work so far.

Brown managed to present some convincing evidence about the story, doing some real investigative work to find all the leads and info about Polybius. But the documentary also made an excellent point about how the human mind is attracted to mystery. It’s a fantastic watch if you have one hour to burn.

(Head’s up: there are instances of flashing images as well as one obvious jumpscare.)